Teaching and Learning Labs - Our Mission
What
We strive to teach and learn things worth knowing.[0]Common advice for businesses is to keep a mission statement short - at most a sentence or two.
Why
Almost all things have good purposes and bad purposes. A good purpose of education is to teach things worth knowing.
For too much of higher education, the primary purpose is to make money; attracting students with the promise of an education is the means to that end. It doesn't have to be that way: teaching things that students value, and charging a fair price for it, is a sustainable business model.
"Teaching" is not just "presenting," but helping students learn. Too much of education has focused on presenting materials to students, rather than on what they need to help them learn, retain that knowledge, and apply it to new situations.
Finally, discussing and deciding what is worth knowing is rarely done. When it is, it is mainly in service to political or professional ends.
How
At Teaching and Learning Labs, we don't have answers. We have ideas. We try them out, see what works and what doesn't, and do our best to learn from both.
Some people think you need big, complicated, and expensive apparatus to learn anything about science. That's true for some specialties; but for most, technology advances so quickly that what was one year's Nobel prize[1]For example, Bose-Einstein condensates, the human genome project, high-temperature superconductors, etc. in a remarkably short time becomes within reach of a college undergraduate science lab or highly-motivated hobbyist[2]For example, Bose-Einstein condensates, gene editing makerspace, genetically modifying bacteria in a summer camp, making high-temperature superconductors using pottery kilns at high schools (and another link among many others) - the same year the Nobel prize was awarded, etc.. The foundational ideas of science make modern technology work. So, things that would have been fantasies for prior generations of scientists[3]For example, early diffraction gratings made by hand-winding hairs over fine screws or rulings on glass plates, the impossibility of getting strong permanent magnets, etc., are now free, or even seen as trash[4]For example, using CD's and DVD's as diffraction gratings, hard drive magnets, etc..
It's fairly common knowledge: the capabilities of an early smartphone were far greater than the computers that took us to the moon. And it's not just the processing ability: the cameras, sensors, and screens we take for granted would have revolutionized several sciences if they'd been available even a few decades before.
Add to that the increasing ability of "Santa Claus machines" to turn ideas into physical reality (Laser printers, inkjet printers, 3D printers, laser cutters) and the amazing ease of getting computers to interact with the physical world (arduino, raspberry pi), and people are managing to do some pretty incredible things.[5]For example, Applied Science, ElementalMaker, etc.
For fields that require an understanding of the abstract, visualization tools and simulation software are becoming ever more powerful and often more intuitive.
This has led to a revolution in several hobbies, going from "hamfests" and isolated clubs, to global communities.[6]For example, the links in the sidebar.
There is no "one right way" for learning. It is highly individual.[7]"I think, however, that there isn't any solution to this problem of education other than to realize that the best teaching can be done only when there is a direct individual relationship between a student and a good teacher -- a situation in which the student discusses the ideas, thinks about the things, and talks about the things. It's impossible to learn very much by simply sitting in a lecture, or even by simply doing problems that are assigned. But in our modern times we have so many students to teach that we have to try to find some substitute for the ideal."
-- Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics In eduction, we usually teach to our impression of the average student. At best, it leaves some poorly served; it may not serve anyone well.
The hobbyist revolutions have reached those trying to be self-taught. In many cases, hobbyists may know the field better than those with a lot of schooling - but can't get their foot in the door due to lack of a degree. Other people have a vague sense of what they do, but don't have enough of a footing to make good use of the hobbyist toolset. They need an education in the basics, to clarify for themselves what they really want to do.
TALL is working to transform education toward teaching things worth knowing. We invite you to share in our experiments.